Matt LaFleur is in his fifth season as the Green Bay Packers head coach. And this is, by far, the most challenging. Without Aaron Rodgers and with Jordan Love, ups and downs were to be expected, but the Packers are also handling an entire group of young offensive pieces, defensive coaching deficiencies, and an underwhelming performance by special teams. However, there is still hope for growth — and that’s the advantage of building such a young roster.

Offense

The Packers are 21st in offensive DVOA. Growing pains were to be expected, as this is the youngest receiving core in the league since the 0-16 2017 Cleveland Browns. The Packers have the least expensive offense in the NFL, and the highest cap hit is left tackle David Bakhtiari, who played one game and is out for season because of his old knee injury. First-year starting quarterback Jordan Love has been mediocre at best, and it's frequent to see wrong routes and mistakes at the catch point from the receivers.

But even things that were supposed to be good, like the offensive line and the run game, have been disappointing for the Packers. That also includes head coach and playcaller Matt LaFleur, who hasn't been as creative as Packers fans hoped.

The unit hasn't developed as much throughout games, and this is the most concerning aspect. The offense started well with solid games against the Chicago Bears and Atlanta Falcons, and with a strong comeback versus the New Orleans Saints.

Since week 4, though, the mistakes and lack of confidence have compounded. A glimpse of hope, though, was seen against the Los Angeles Rams — the best performance from Jordan Love and the running game.

Grade: C

Defense

A unit with a lot of talent, a lot of investment, and mostly mediocre results. The Packers are 22nd in defensive DVOA, and they were 28th before facing Brett Rypien and the Rams. If you analyze other teams, there are many producing much more with less talent — there's a clear example inside the division, with the Minnesota Vikings and Brian Flores. To be fair, the run defense got much better after the bye week.

For the most part, Rashan Gary is the only defender who's playing at a really high level. Even All-Pro cornerback Jaire Alexander has struggled.

The big reason for the lack of performance is coaching. Defensive coordinator Joe Barry has a long track record of failures, and has never had a defense better than 20th in DVOA — he worked as DC for the Detroit Lions in 2007 and 2008 and for the Washington Redskins from 2015 to 2016.

With the Packers, there's a downgrade after being 20th in DVOA in 2022. And that includes a pretty huge investment from the front office — every first-round pick, except for Jordan Love in 2020, and every external free agent added.

Grade: C

Special teams

Keisean Nixon, Eric Wilson, Kristian Welch, Dallin Leavitt, Jonathan Owens, plus the normal combo of specialists (kicker, punter, long snapper). All these players are on the 53-man roster primarily because of their expected roles on special teams. Rich Bisaccia is the highest-paid special teams coordinator in the NFL, and he was promoted to assistant head coach in the offseason.

Still, the Packers special teams are not much better then they had been before. Green Bay is 28th in special teams DVOA, and it's still possible to see coverage mistakes, bad blocking, and penalties have been a common theme.

Last year, the team had glimpses of better performance when they moved on from Amari Rodgers and went to Keisean Nixon as a returner. He was a first-team All-Pro. However, it became clear that Nixon's performance wasn't sustainable, especially without proper blocking in front of him, and Nixon has more frequently hurt the team taking the ball out of deep end zone than helping with long returns.

The grade is not an F just because rookie kicker Anders Carlson has been better than previously expected, rookie punter Daniel Whelan is average at a low cost, and veteran long snapper Matthew Orzech has stabilized the position.

Grade: D

Rookie report card: How the Packers young players have performed

Green Bay has 13 rookies on their 53-man roster